The Example of a Tree
The tree is a divine enterprise. The tree begins with a small seed within which all the potential exists for it to produce a trunk, roots, branches, twigs and leaves. It just has to find a favourable environment in which to start growing. If you sow the seed under a stone, you cannot expect the desired result. But when the seed is sown in soil, it is as if, the soil becomes soft and helps in letting it take root, and all of a sudden, the seed is linked with the entire universe. In a way, it is as if the whole universe had been created for its nurture.
Many factors come together to provide the seed with food. The layers of soil contain minerals and salts which, when dissolved by rainwater, are assimilated by the roots, which in turn supply them to the rest of the plant and then the tree starts growing. Right from the earth to the sun, the entire mechanism of the universe becomes activated to produce the different weather conditions which will bring the heat and cold and rain necessary for the plant to grow into a full grown tree.
This tree so harmoniously becomes a part of the entire universe that it does not clash with anything else in its environment. If it takes water from the ground, it also gives out moisture through its leaves and contributes to the formation of rain clouds. If the tree takes food from the ground, it produces leaves and flowers, then it lets its leaves and flowers fall on the ground in order to fertilize the soil. If it takes carbon dioxide from the air, it returns to its surroundings another more beneficial element in the form of oxygen. Although separate from the universe, it relates to the entire universe in such a manner that it does not clash with anything else.
The tree, moreover, presents a beautiful picture to the human eye and gives off a lovely fragrance to the passerby. For those who want food it has delicious fruits to offer. It may also be cut down for those who need wood. The tree meets many needs and is guaranteed to fulfil human expectations for all time to come.
Half of the tree is above the ground and half of it is below the ground. The tree, moreover, is so deep-rooted that it needs no support and its roots are so firmly entrenched in the soil that no one can uproot it. It rises so high in its surroundings that it is always able to have sunlight.
The Quran has likened the believer to a tree. This shows what qualities the believer should have. In the believer all those qualities exist at the human level which exist at the material level in the tree. A believer has to consciously do of his own free will what the tree is doing while governed by nature. The believer, of his own free will, has to create a green world which the tree brings about as a matter of compulsion as it has no freedom. A tree has to follow the laws of nature.
The tree is a growing phenomenon and, similarly, a believer too is a growing phenomenon. The believer is a human being who, because of his divine thinking, is able to make the entire universe spiritual food for his realization of God.
